Last week, I began to unveil my picks for the top 25 greatest video game teams of all time. This week, I will reveal all but the top five greatest teams.

Disclaimer: As much as I wanted to put it on this list, the super large Pong paddle that your unskilled family members got to select does not qualify since the paddle was not technically a "team." Sorry to all of you holding out hope that the paddle would be number one on the list.

In case you missed last week's article, here are picks 25-16:

25. Minnesota Vikings (NFL 2K)
24. Philadelphia 76ers (NBA 2K2)
23. New York Mets (MLB 2K7)
22. Detroit Lions (Tecmo Super Bowl)
21. Los Angeles (Blades of Steel)
20. Cleveland Indians (Ken Griffey Baseball N64)
19. Buffy’s Gym (Sammy Sosa’s Softball Slam)
18. LA Lakers (Bulls Vs. Lakers)
17. Pittsburgh Penguins (NHLPA Hockey)
16. Chicago Bulls (Tecmo NBA Basketball)

Now without further delay, I give you picks 15-6.

#15 Utah (Bases Loaded)

Utah was the video game equivalent of the early '90s Oakland A's, minus the steroids.

Who could forget Mr. Agua at the plate, belting homers left and right. Agua was all Utah needed on the offensive end because the phenomena Utahl pitching staff consisted of Quinta, Lep and Stava. If you scored any runs against these guys, which you did not because they were unhittable, you would have to face Bella in the ninth inning. Good luck mounting a comeback against him.

Utah was unbeatable in Bases Loaded -- reason enough in my mind to award the state with an actual MLB team.

#14 Denver Broncos (NFL Gameday '99)

Not only did this game feature the eventual 1999 Super Bowl champions, the Denver Broncos, it also featured one of the greatest individual video game performers ever in Terrell Davis. Simply put, the Broncos of Gameday '99 are clearly worthy of the #14 spot in this list.

I once spent 10 straight hours with a high school buddy of mine attempting to beat the Broncos in this game. He would play a game as the Orange Crush, I would fail at beating him. The next game I would take the helm as John Elway and crew as he tried to take me down. This charade continued back and forth for an entire Saturday, and guess what? The Broncos never lost.

What cemented the Broncos place on this illustrious list was not that they won every game, which they were used to, but rather how they would win the games. Have you ever seen a team win three games on last second screen passes to their halfback? The Gameday Broncos were magical.

I think I have an arthritic thumb because of that infernal 10-hour gaming session on the original Playstation. My thumb aches whenever it snows, rains or when the Broncos are on TV.

#13 Detroit Red Wings (NHL 2002)

This was the kind of team that would literally cause you to hurt friends if they had the guts to choose the Red Wings in a head-to-head game. Not only were the '01-'02 Wings stacked in real life, their PS2 virtual incarnation was even more explosive.

Hull, Yzerman, Fedorov, Larionov, Shanahan, Holmstrom, Robitaille, Chelios, Datsyuk, Lidstrom -- basically if you were not scoring 10 goals per game in NHL 02, you were not doing your job. Oh, and I forgot to mention, they had Hasek in net so they rarely allowed any goals either.

I will never forget playing a complete 82-game season with the Red Wings; I went 81-1 on the hardest difficulty setting. My only loss came after I was forced to simulate a game because my girlfriend at the time showed up for a date. (In retrospect, she was not worth that one loss.) I averaged 14 goals per game and trailed only once all season.

It is a rarity that you find a team this dominant in a hockey game. The '01-'02 virtual, and real life, Red Wings were more than deserving of the moniker "Greatest Hockey Team Ever."

#12 Seattle Mariners (Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball)

While the Braves were also a dynamo in this Super Nintendo classic, the Mariners are the only team deserving of being on this list.

Why you ask? Because the Mariners were the only team with a real MLB player on their roster, Mr. Ken Griffey Jr. This would mean nothing if it were not for the fact that Junior hit a home run every time he walked up to the plate. If you think I am joking, I truly am not. Griffey literally hit a home run every at bat.

Here is a little known fact about the Mariners in this game: All those "no name" players that formed Griffey’s supporting cast in the game were Nintendo employees at the time the game was released.

So, you have the only pro in the game -- who just happens to hit a home run every at bat -- and he is surrounded by Nintendo employees. If that does not sound like collusion, I do not know what does.

#11 San Francisco/Boston (RBI Baseball)

Yes, it is a tie. Will Clark and Roger Clemens are really the only two names you need to know when it comes to deciding which team to choose in RBI Baseball. Clark was the best hitter in the game, and Clemens the best pitcher. Both teams were unbeatable, and if you pitted the two against each other, the game would instantly shut off because the coding did not know how to process such a clash of titans.

The mere thought of these two teams playing against one another, and the possibility of Clemens pitching to Clark, makes my brain want to explode. For my own safety, I am done even contemplating the duel.

#10 Philadelphia Eagles (Madden '94)

QB #12 was the first genuine video game superstar. Let me rephrase that, Randall Cunningham was the first genuine video game superstar.

In an era before Madden games crowned a cover athlete, a humble, young virtual Randall decided to be a superstar. Randall could pass, Randall could run, Randall and the Eagles could not be stopped in Madden '94.

The only way to stop Randall and the Eagles was to do the unthinkable: hurt Randall. I was able to beat the Eagle’s once in Madden '94, and it was only after Randall was taken off the field in that amazing pixelated ambulance -- only to be promptly dropped on the sidelines after the ambulance mysteriously disappeared into thin air.

The Philadelphia Randalls were beastly.

#9 LA Lakers (NBA Street)

In a game that only allowed three players per team to be on the court at once, all the Lakers really needed were two, Shaq and Kobe. Sure, Robert Horry, Derek Fisher and Horace Grant were in the game so the Lakers could have a third player on the court, but it was not like any of these players ever touched the ball.

When some people have problems advancing past certain points in video games, they turn to cheat codes. If you ever had trouble advancing in NBA Street, you just chose the Lakers. Honestly, this team was able to achieve a Gamebreaker within one minute of the game starting, and even the game's so-called "end bosses" were no match for the Lakers.

If a buddy of mine ever chose the Lakers in a multiplayer match, he received a swift kick to the groin and was then forced to play as the worst player and team in the game, Jahidi White and the Washington Wizards.

I am going to come out and say it regardless of the backlash the community may throw my way: The 2K1 Kings are the best 3-point shooting team in any basketball video game not titled Double Dribble.

Jason "White Chocolate" Williams could stroke the three, Peja could stroke the three, Nick Anderson could stroke the three, Jon Barry could stroke the three, Bobby Jackson could stroke the three, Doug Christie could stroke the three and even Chris Webber could knock down the three in this game. The only guy on the roster who could not hit a 3-pointer was Lawrence Funderburke, but then again, Funderburke could not hit much of anything.

I forgot to mention Vlade; he was also able to hit the three in this game for some weird reason.

Out of all the 3-point threats on this team's virtual roster, no one could shoot threes with more consistency than Doug Christie. Within a week of buying this game, my future best man Matt had already perfected the optimal Christie shot release point. The result was 14 straight Christie bombs to open up a 42-point lead on me. Virtual Doug Christie was the sole reason I stopped playing the game against Matt. In fact, NBA 2K1 almost ruined our friendship.

All you really needed was 15 minutes to learn the individual release points of the 2K1 Kings' roster, and then you could easily shoot 85 percent from beyond the arc. I am pretty sure this is the team that caused 2K to move away from generic shot animations that were easy to time.

#7 Florida State (Bill Walsh College Football)

Florida State won the 1993 National Championship, so naturally the team was unbeatable in Bill Walsh College Football.

The thing is, I honestly do not have much more to say about this team, other than that they could not be stopped. I spent hours of my youth attempting to beat FSU with my Miami squad, the second best team in the game, and never came within 14 points.

Florida State has to be the earliest example of comeback A.I. and flat out CPU cheating. It did not matter what you threw at the Seminoles, they would somehow find a way to beat the crap out of you.

If only I had Joe Kane, Lattimer and Omar Epps from The Program, then maybe I would have had a shot at beating FSU.

#6 Orlando Magic (NBA Live '95)

1995 was the year of the Orlando Magic. Little Penny was all over the airwaves, Shaq had not yet made Kazaam, and the Magic were the most dominant team on the face of the planet in NBA Live.

Shaq, Penny and Nick Anderson made the Live '95 Magic a tough draw. Penny hardly missed a shot, was able to drive the lane for the awesome scoop-and-score animation, and had the attributes that only Kobe and LeBron are given in today’s games. Shaq was a force down low, was able to snag every rebound, and was a dunking machine. Finally, Nick Anderson was the 3-point specialist, hitting anything that was not contested -- especially shots from the bottom left corner that would somehow magnetically change direction and go in the net.

It was hard to fault a friend who played as the Magic in Live '95 because deep-down inside I was always jealous that I did not scroll to that squad first. Sure the team was dominant if they were your team, and cheap if they were not, but they had some awesome jerseys and the marketability to make any 14-year-old boy swoon.


Be sure to drop by next week for the top five most dominant teams. But be warned, the top five is going to get pretty ugly because the remaining teams will be battling for the number one spot. Only the strong (or cheapest) team will survive.